DailyCandy Scout: Explore Trends and Win Challenges

Email newsletter and online phenom DailyCandy is already well-known for uncovering cool finds in fashion, cuisine, shopping, health, beauty and other areas. Now the powerhouse has launched a mobile app called DailyCandy Scout so its devotees can share their own fantastic discoveries.

Snap photos and post them to the app for the opportunity to earn bragging rights, win cool prizes (like $50 gift cards to awesome brands!) and interact with DailyCandy editors. Click “more” to take a look.

Getting Started

Since DailyCandy Scout is centered on interaction not only among users but also between DailyCandy and individual users, it makes sense that the app would want to send you push notifications. After you launch the app you’ll be asked to make a decision about this.

If you would prefer, you can explore the app as a guest before creating an account. Navigate the app using swipe gestures.

Next you’ll need to take care of the account situation. Sign in as an existing user if you already have a DailyCandy account; create an account as a new user; or check out the content as a guest before committing.

The app provides a brief overview of the gestures required to navigate within the app before taking you to the home screen.

Featured

There are a lot of moving parts to this app, which can be a tad overwhelming at first but after some use I think you’ll agree they ultimately make for easier exploration and navigation.

The four tabs along the bottom are: Featured, Following, Scout, Browse and Profile. Selecting Featured reveals three tabs that you can pull up and down: Challenges, Trending and Editors’ Picks. Within each of these you can swipe right or left to scroll through the content. Tap on any image for more information.

From the home screen you can browse Challenges, what’s Trending and the Editors’ Picks; tap on any image for more information about it.

Challenges are contests or fun little to-dos that the DailyCandy editors have presented to the users and which involve posting a photo, such as of a meal, yourself enjoying the outdoors, an outfit you love, a favorite book, etc.

Under Trending you can browse what users are really getting into. These images have received a lot of likes. And photos that have grabbed the DailyCandy crew’s attention show up in the Editors’ Picks. By the way, if your photo is selected as an Editors’ Pick, it gets a little trophy sticker, plus a comment from the editor.

Challenges

If you want to participate in a Challenge — and of course you do — there are two ways you can enter. First, you can use the Scout tab, which is front and center at the bottom of the home screen. Alternatively, you can browse the Challenges, find the one you want to take part in and then enter directly from there. Before or after you enter, you might also want to check out other users’ entries, which are displayed in a grid alongside the Challenge info.

A Challenge could be about practically anything, and sometimes there’s even a sweet prize waiting for the winner.

The process of posting a photo is pretty simple. DailyCandy Scout will ask you whether you want to take a snapshot while in the app or choose an image from your library. Then you just crop, move and resize the photo, plus add a caption and tap Post, and voila: You’ve entered a Challenge.

Take or upload an existing photo from your library; crop, resize and caption it; then post it to the Challenge to enter.

I found the Browse tab to be the easiest way to peruse all the ongoing Challenges. There all the Challenges, past and present, are conveniently listed for you. Plus, there are tabs for viewing what’s Popular and Recent.

The Browse tab allows you to view all Challenges in a list format; here you can also view Recent and Popular uploads from users.

Interaction

The far right tab on the home screen takes you to your profile, which displays your profile picture, the number of entries you’ve submitted, the number of Challenges you’ve won, the number of users you’re following and the number of followers you have, as well as thumbnails of your entries and any images you’ve liked.

View your profile using the far right tab; click on other users’ names to learn more about them. Editors reward images they like with trophy badges.

On your profile page, you can tap Following or Followers to browse those respective lists of users. And as you’re explore the app, you can tap on other users’ names at any time to reveal their own profile pages, view their entries, like their photos or follow them.

Conclusion

Two things. I wish you could leave comments on other users’ entries, and I would also like to have the ability to search for a specific user, so that friends can follow one another on the app.

Still, DailyCandy has done something very right here. They’ve recognized the modern generation’s (borderline narcissistic) obsession with broadcasting details about their lives, and have funneled that into DailyCandy Scout, which is pure perfection for people who love to show off their own awesomeness. The results are something like a competitive Pinterest. And you know what? It totally works.

And even if you aren’t that competitive, the Challenges still have a fun factor. Plus, just browsing the other users’ entries can be pretty entertaining and informative; pick up on the trends, get some inspiration — the app is a smorgasbord of what all the cool kids are talking about.

Right now it would seem like the number of users — well, consistent users — is relatively small. But I do see this thing taking off, given how good it looks and how frequently new Challenges are added. And once word gets out about the sweet prizes DailyCandy is giving away? You’d better enter some Challenges now, while your odds are still good!